ONE route to Europe closed, another still open. Everton may have seen their Worthington Cup hopes go west down south last night but all is not lost.

ONE route to Europe closed, another still open. Everton may have seen their Worthington Cup hopes go west down south last night but all is not lost.

The Blues have now to prove their worth in the Premiership after they were dismantled by a slick Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Football is a fickle master and the challenge for David Moyes and his side is to keep their recent momentum going in the league on Saturday, so as not to let the expectation still washing over Goodison drain away.

After losing cruelly at Newcastle at the weekend - shipping two goals in the final four minutes - last night was a test of their strength of character. If that is a truism, the stakes are now higher.

Ironically, Chelsea provide the opposition in three days' time. Moyes promised he will turn out a different, sterner team from the one that suffered this version of capital punishment.

Moyes has done tremendous work in raising the ailing Everton team he inherited to new heights. His next task - a tough challenge he is sure to relish - is to keep them in the ascendancy.

There was no legislating for the wizardry of Gianfranco Zola, who unpicked the Everton defence with aplomb and created the home side's first two goals, but one question Moyes must address is the Rooney issue.

In a bold statement of intent the precociously-talented teenager was named alongside Tomasz Radzinski and Kevin Campbell, but spent most of the night annonymously cast on the fringes of the action in an ill-starred three-man frontline.

Admittedly, it is hard to leave out the two experienced forwards who have scored 12 of Everton's last 19 Premiership goals, but if Rooney is to start it is surely worth playing him where he is most dangerous - as half of a front two. The writing was on the wall when Chelsea stormed into a 26th-minute lead through Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink but he had Zola's sorcery to thank.

The little Italian threaded a defence-splitting pass from the half-way line for his strike partner to get behind the otherwise impresssive Joseph Yobo and take one touch before coolly drilling home beyond Richard Wright.

It was a just reward for Claudio Ranieri's side who were beginning to assert themselves after Everton failed to make their early brightness pay.

And Chelsea left them with a mountain to climb when Emmanuel Petit grabbed their second of the night and his first goal of the season.

Again Zola was the architect. His delicious, floated pass was latched on to by Petit, who timed his run to perfection to avoid the offside flag, and volleyed decisively beyond Wright in the 43rd minute.

Everton could have no real complaints with the half-time scoreline as Chelsea's league of nations showed their class.

It is a sign of Everton's recent renaissance that they travelled to London to face the team third in the Premiership with hopes of progressing into the quarter-finals. But all the steel and fight imbued in them by Moyes was not enough and the game was effectively over by the end of the first half.

The best early opening fell to the Blues through Mark Pembridge in the 16th minute as the Chelsea defence for once looked vulnerable. William Gallas and John Terry conspired to allow him a sight of goal only for him to steer a well-struck volley wide of the target.

By then, Pembridge had directed a free-kick into the wall and, at the other end, Celestine Babayaro had squirmed an inviting chance wide from inside the area from Zola's cut-back.

But, in truth, Everton were forced on to the back foot and could be accused of lacking quality in their crossing when they had a chance to put the home side's recent reputation for miserly defending to the test.

Radzinski was presented with a golden chance to wrest Everton back into the contest within two minutes of the start of the second-half.

The little Canadian has proved prolific this season, having finally found the killer instinct that made him such a success at Anderlecht prior to his move to Merseyside two summers ago. But his touch deserted him on this occasion as Chelsea's backline went AWOL.

Thomas Gravesen found him in space on the right edge of the penalty area but his shot lacked power and was easily gathered by keeper Carlo Cudicini.

It was Everton, though, suffering most of the palpitations. Zola, denied a goal when caught marginally offside one moment, clipped the crossbar the next with a free-kick whipped in from the left.

Some respite came with Zola making way for Eidur Gudjohnsen. The travelling fans generously applauded him as he exited stage right.

Moyes' brand of Everton never give in and they forced a succession of corners midway through the second-half but struggled to sustain their pressure or to find the guile and craft to carve out a realistic way back.

And it was all over for them in the space of two destructive minutes.

First, Mario Stanic directed a near-post header past Wright in the 68th-minute as he climbed above Li Tie to apply the crucial blow to Hasselbaink's corner.

And Hasselbaink then claimed his second of the night with a viciously-struck shot from the edge of the box to kill off Everton's hopes of winning the League Cup for the first time in their history. Twenty minutes to play but no hope.

And it got worse before it got better. Rooney had a penalty saved in the 78th-minute after Gallas had handled the ball. But the youngster pushed the ball lamely and Cudicini tumbled down to his right to save. And that after Rooney had gestured David Unsworth away to claim responsibility for the spot-kick. The impudence of youth.

Naysmith poked home a consolation for Everton moments later from Graves-en's corner but it was too little, too late. The Blues defence had not conceded a single goal in more than 10 hours of football before Saturday's St James' Park calamity. Now it's six goals in 74 minutes.

And to complete their misery, Unsworth and Yobo will miss the Mersey derby on December 22.

Their suspensions would have been used up in the Worthington Cup quarter-finals had Everton gone through. Oh dear.